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Four years to now

Four years ago, a wide-eyed group of Prince George delegates returned home from the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax daunted by the incredible amount of work ahead but confident they, and the rest of the city, could pull off the 2015 Games.

Four years ago, a wide-eyed group of Prince George delegates returned home from the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax daunted by the incredible amount of work ahead but confident they, and the rest of the city, could pull off the 2015 Games.

"This is Canada that is coming to our doors," Anthony Everett, chairman of the 2015 Canada Winter Games Host Society, said in February 2011. "[But] I'm 100 per cent positive, having been there, that we can put this on."

Tracy Calogheros was blunt after touring the Halifax venues.

"I did a whirlwind tour of the venues while I was there. I think we're as good or better in a lot of ways," She said. "I think our curling facility is better. And the ringette facility wasn't as good as any of the arenas here."

This week and next, a similar group from Red Deer is in Prince George and the Games venues, watching and learning. You can't miss them - they're wearing red hockey jerseys with the number 19 on the back, symbolizing the 2019 Canada Winter Games in their city.

2019 CWG chairperson Lyn Radford is particularly focusing on administration and logistical issues, like food, security, moving people and equipment, and, of course, financing.

"The competition is important but a lot of times that is easily handled by the sport organizations, they do it all the time, so it's the other things that have to dovetail with it," Radford said, pointing to the music and cultural components of the Games.

Red Deer has obvious advantages over Prince George, such as three million people just 90 minutes or less away by car, thanks to the city's position between Edmonton and Calgary. With Edmonton dropping out of the bidding process for the 2022 Winter Olympics, corporate sponsorship and volunteers should be plentiful. Best of all, inroads will have been made on both of those fronts next year, when Red Deer hosts the 2016 Memorial Cup, the Canadian Hockey League championship.

Hopefully, Radford and the Red Deer delegates also return to Prince George in the spring, when senior Games officials and the organizing committee do their post-mortem on the 2015 event. Even now, there are already notes being taken of what has gone well and what the Prince George team wishes they could do over, knowing what they know now from hard-earned experience.

For communities like Prince George, Red Deer or little Whitehorse in 2007, with just one-third of Prince George's population, to host the Canada Winter Games is an incredible accomplishment of organization, dedication and hard work. To put it in context, Vancouver hosted about 2,500 athletes for the 2010 Winter Olympics, virtually the same number of athletes competing in Prince George this week and next. And, to repeat a phrase often used over the past several years by Mike Davis, the marketing and communications manager for the 2015 Games, the budget for the 2010 Olympic torch relay alone was greater than the entire budget for the Games in Prince George.

If the first few days are any indication, 2015 could be a seminal year for Prince George and not just because the city marks its centennial anniversary the week after the Games end. Looking ahead to Prince George's second century, residents may look back at two cities - the Prince George "before the Games" and the transformed city "after the Games."

The transformation is more than just physical. In the wake of the Winter Olympics, Vancouver residents now carry themselves with the knowledge that they are the inhabitants of a world city. In Prince George, the city and its residents can move forward through the rest of 2015 and beyond with the cosmopolitan confidence that comes with being a major Canadian city, not just some poor, sad cousin to Kelowna or Kamloops.

Bring on the Tim Hortons Brier. Bring on the World Curling Championships

Bring on the Memorial Cup. Bring on the World Junior Hockey Championships.

Bring on World Cup competitions in biathlon and snowboarding.

Prince George has the facilities and the people to make it happen.

This city has always punched well above its weight class. We just needed something like the Canada Winter Games to finally believe it.